Sausage Preparation (Grinding the Day Away)

Ah, sausage. It seems like a simple thing -- grind up some meat and spices, jam it into a casing. It is a simple thing, but like the best simple things, the more you look at it, the more varied and complex it becomes. I guess that is why the so-called simple things in life are so satisfying.

Sausage traditionally uses the tougher cuts of meat -- it ain't so tough once it's ground, but you still get all the extra meat flavor you don't get with the milder tender cuts.

Once ground, meat becomes 'forcemeat', as it is forced through a rotating blade and then a die of varying-sized holes. Grinding meat comes in different styles of texture, from country-style (once through a large-holed die for a coarse texture) to a progressive grind (sending the meat through several times, each time with a progressively smaller die-hole for a finer texture).

Simply sending the meat through a grind results in a basic grind sausage. Emulsion forcemeat has a formula of 5 parts trimmed meat, 4 parts fat, and 3 parts water in the form of ice. As these elements are combined in the grinding, the temperature is lowered from 50 degrees to 30. This results in a very fine and even texture, like the American hot dog.

Our group got two sausages to make, a Szechuan-style and a Braunschweiger. The first is all pork and a basic grind, while the latter is an emulsion forcemeat primarily of pork liver— liverwurst. Dora the Explorer and 2LG took on the liver, while Squarehead and I went to Szechuan.

Simply put, you must cube the meat to less than a 1" square. I had 15 pounds of pork butt (shoulder, silly!) to cube, and being that the shoulder ain't no tenderloin, it was full of gristle and silverskin and other stuff that got caught in the rotating blade and jammed up the space between the blade and the die in the Kitchen Aid mixer. Once cubed, all the seasonings were added: salt, prague powder (a pink salt curing agent, frightening stuff), sugar, chili powder, white pepper, Chinese five-spice powder, Szechuan peppercorn, soy sauce, and a healthy shot of vodka.

All this was done over a salted ice bath -- in sausage making, EVERYTHING must be kept as cold as possible, as solid fat will result in a better grind, fat distribution (thus flavor distribution), and easier handling. But the Kitchen Aide kept jamming, despite going over the meat again to make it into smaller cubes. Norbert, somewhat experienced in sausage-making, jumped in and put our remaining 13 pounds through the Hobart. This is basically an industrial mixer, with an industrial grinding attachment -- literally 5x the size of the Kitchen Aide. We sent it through twice, first through the big die then the small, and it tore through the meat cubes like it was slush.

The ground flavored meat mix was again on ice, and I chilled the Hobart bowl and mixing paddle. I mixed the meat mush for about a minute until the consistency of the ground meat became a bit sticky and bound to itself. Now, casing.

We had long ropes of pig intestine to work with -- natural casing. First run through with water, because, well, it's intestine, then delicately spooled onto a hollow plastic tube with a flanged end. Once loaded, this tube is secured to a cylindrical tub with a plunger on top that is forced slowly down by a turning motion. Loaded up with the meat mush, the meat comes out in an even tube while you pull the casing. Every 6 inches or so, the tube is twisted to make links. Getting the rhythm down with the 2nd person was a bit tricky, creating bulbous shaped sausages and a few burst links. Air pockets would form, which would be pricked gingerly. Eventually we got through the fifteen pounds, getting 6 links in a string without a burst. This style of sausage is to be hung and air-dried for three days, but since the school doesn't have the facilities for this sort of thing, these Asian porky tubes went into the fridge to age.

At the end of class, we quickly reviewed what hors d'oeuvres everyone will be cooking up. My two ideas passed initial muster, so this is what looks will be my final swan song in c-school:

• Indian Vegetable Pakora fritters with tamarind dipping sauce
  


• Mini Margarita Pizzas with Fresh Tomato, Fresh Moz, House Made Italian Sausage and basil chiffonade

The first we made just last Friday, and on top of being the best pakora I've ever eaten (here and the UK) with real flavor of the vegetables, it's also vegan. Vegan without tofu, mock-meat, or the feeling of absence.

The pizza will be a bit challenging -- tonight I am assembling an experimental run to see how long topped round of dough can sit in the fridge before hitting the hot oven.

Tomorrow, we go on with forcemeat and replace intestine with aspic -- terrines.

ADDENDA:
After class, I attended a chocolate tasting of new and emerging brands from South America and Africa (though a solid half of them were from Ecuador.) It was a bit like a wine tasting, with all the chocolate dark and around 70% cocoa. The first chocolate was used as a standard barer, to judge the rest against, which was the French Valrhona. It was really good, maybe an 8 out of 10. All the other chocolate varied wildly, and all were pretty inferior, going from mild and innocuous to burnt, artificial tasting and unpleasantly bitter. Funny, I was expecting something fine, but the hype around being organic and socially just just does not add up to a more pleasurable chocolate. Once Wholefoods and the like starts stocking all these chocolates, it'll probably be the ones with the best marketing and packaging that'll survive -- it's just too much very a consumer to try everyone. Of the brands, the best one was the Grenada Chocolate Company, but the lecturer warned due to the super small batches that are made and the undependable supply of beans, the quality of the chocolate varies greatly from bar to bar.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, good yogurt with raw cashews, honey, vanilla, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

Again not very hungry at all, but didn't want to feel ill with the dirt pill.

AM TASTING: 11:45am, 4 different small sausage patties (including a chicken vegetable, Italian, and green chile, pommes Parisian, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

As today was prep and not cooking, some of the extra meat mush was fried up in patties and served with golden cubes of buttery taters. NOT a low sodium meal.

PM TASTING: 1-3:30pm, a variety of South American and African chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

Full of sausage and chocolate, somehow lusting after salad.

DINNER: 8pm, pizza with fresh moz and fresh tomato, large green salad, half a pint of ben & jerrys, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Double 00 crust came out perfectly, nice and thin, crisp, nice wheaty taste. Made a round of 1.5" pizzas, stuck them in the fridge till B got home.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 20 mini pizzas, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
The experiment worked -- I held the topped pizzas (pizzettes?) in the fridge for 3 hours, did not suffer too much quality wise. The dough didn't rise that much, very cracker-like, but still had that nice pizza chew. Topped with just fresh moz and a single thin round of tomato, the real thing will have a small morsel of sausage to kick up the salt bang, and some basil chiffonade to make it come together.